SOS - Secrets of Opening Surprises - December 2012

With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized tons of stuffy theory, while gaining time on the clock! And you will have fun watching the horror on your opponent's face...

SEE FOR YOURSELF HOW AN SOS CAN SHOCK AND CONFUSE!

Every month, the editor of the SOS Secrets of Opening Surprises book series, IM Jeroen Bosch, annotates a game which was recently played with an SOS-variation.

SOS Game of the Month: December 2012See also SOS–6, Chapter 17, page 135The FIDE Women World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk was fiercely contested. We saw a lot of fighting chess in which many of the elo-favourites were eliminated in the earlier rounds. In a short match (or in a rapid tie-break) it may pay off to surprise your opponent at an early stage, and many chose to do so.

Let us have a look at a Caro-Kann SOS as played by European women champion Valentina Gunina (pictured above) in her first-round match.

(Our actual SOS runs 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 a6, but the game just transposes to this line.)Latvian player Starostits has been the most active promotor of 3...a6 recently.Let us investigate a few games after 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 a6. Grandmaster John van der Wiel wrote an insightful article on this line in SOS-6. I refer to this volume for his full explanation on the usefulness of 3... a6. Let it suffice here, that Black plays this waiting move in order to develop his light-squared bishop outside the pawn chain (a pawn chain that (s)he will often try to maintain - as opposed to the main line of the Caro-Kann after 3... dxe4).Now 4.Nf3 Bg4 is the main line and will transpose to Gu Xiaobing-Gunina.Some alternatives are:- 4.h3 (this is not very testing according to Van der Wiel. White prevents Black's main idea ...Bg4. Starotits now likes to transpose back into the main line of the Caro-Kann, when he often ends up with a useful extra move, ...a7-a6, as White then plays h2-h3-h4-h5 rather than h2-h4-h5)

4...dxe4 (Van der Wiel likes both 4...e6 and 4...b5) 5.Nxe4 Bf5 6.Ng3 Bg6 7.h4 (White goes for the 'main line' and acknowledges that Black has an extra move in the form of ...a6)

(compared to the main line of the Caro-Kann, White has been provoked into playing a4, which makes queenside castling a less attractive option) 12.Bf4 Be7 (12...Nbd7!) 13.h5?! (13.Qb3!) 13...Nbd7 14.Ne4 Nxe5 15.Bxe5 Qd5 16.f3 0-0-0 17.Kf2 Nxe4+ 18.fxe4 Qa5 19.Ke2?! Bf6 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.c3 Rhg8, and with White's king in the centre, Black was doing very well in Giron-Starostits, Istanbul 2012.- According to Van der Wiel the Advance Variation is one of White's more dangerous options. In SOS-6 he explains how Black should proceed in that case. After 4.e5 Bf5 he feels that 5.g4 ought to be better for White (5.Nce2 e6 6.Ng3 Bg6 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 c5 11.c3 Nc6 was a favourable French Defence in Andrenko-Cherniaev, St Petersburg 2012) 5...Bd7.- 4.Bd3!? g6!? (4...dxe4 5.Nxe4 Qxd4 is also analysed by Van der Wiel) 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.0-0

Very interesting, White hardly has a better move than 4.d4 now, when we transpose to our SOS line.

3...Bg4 is the main reply to the two knights variation, but 3...Nf6 4.e5 Ne4 is another SOS idea. See Igor Khenkin's article in SOS-10.

4.d4 Bg4 5.h3

Immediately putting the question to the bishop. The interesting thing if you take up this line is that Black has two options. You can take on f3 for a solid position or play the more enterprising (but risky) 5...Bh5. Depending upon your mood, the tournament situation, or your opponent you can play either the one or the other.5.Be2 e6 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Bxf3 Nf6 8.0-0 Be7 9.g3 0-0 10.Bg2 b5 11.a3 Nbd7 12.Kh1 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Rc8 14.Be3 Nxe4 15.Bxe4 Nf6 16.Bg2 Nd5 17.Qe2 c5 was a slight edge for Black in Azam-Labeckas, Istanbul 2012.

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